


Different Kinds Of Sickness

by princey_pie



Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Angst, Gen, Implied/Referenced Abuse, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Sickness, Vomiting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-31
Updated: 2018-08-31
Packaged: 2019-07-04 19:35:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,773
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15847962
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/princey_pie/pseuds/princey_pie
Summary: Roman gets sick and some things go wrong, proving that sometimes a sick mind can cause more damage than a virus infection.





	Different Kinds Of Sickness

The first thing Virgil heard when he woke up this morning was coughing coming through the wall from Romans room. In an instant, he was on his feet and barged into the creative side's room, afraid that the other was choking on something. However, he was greeted by the sight of a very much breathing Roman.

"Oh relax doom and gloom, it's just a cold," he said visibly annoyed but his voice hoarse.

"It doesn't sound like a cold but good to see that you're well enough to throw nicknames around, your highness. If you will excuse me now," he turned to leave.

"Hey, Virge? Could you please not tell the others? Especially Patton?"

Virgil stopped at the sick side's request and Roman could see how he tensed up before giving him his response in a more serious tone than they both had spoken with each other in months: "I won't, I promise." The anxious side seemed to pause as to say more but apparently had decided against it as he shortly shooked his head and left the room.

\---

It took exactly 5 hours and 34 minutes more for the other two to find out about Roman's condition. A major part in that might have been Roman throwing up over both of them at lunch after tasting the first bite of food. While Virgil stayed in the kitchen to clean up the mess, Patton and Logan tried to maneuver a very uncooperative Roman onto the couch.

"Look, padre, it's simply a little upset stomach, nothing a few glasses of water won't fix, otherwise I'm simply splendid. Besides I've got quite the to-do list…"

"That will have to wait until you're better, kiddo."

"But I'm fine now."

"Falsehood. Your temperature is at 104.2! That adds to the facts that your coordination is disturbed, your hoarse voice, and the fact that you threw up just seconds ago clearly show that you're sick."

Roman dropped his arms over Logan's shoulders, heavily leaning onto the logical side while whining: "But I dun' wanna. It's no fun!"

Patton gave a sympathetic smile as he scoped up Roman in his arms, carrying him bridal style the rest of the way and set him down in the middle of the couch, wrapped in a thick blanket, making him a look like a pouting burrito.

"Don't worry, Ro, I perfectly know how to take care of the sick," Patton cheerily reassured the other. All looked up when a loud shattering sound from the kitchen followed the statement.

"I'll go check," Logan said, "you stay here with Roman."

\---

Virgil managed to clean up floor and table pretty quickly and was currently busying himself with the dishes when he heard Patton: "I perfectly know how to take care of the sick." Not the first time he heard that, just not here, not on this side of the mindscape. The very sentence chased a chill down his spine and just for a moment, his grip loosened on the wet porcelain and the plate shattered on the tiles. With a curse on his lips, he carefully began to gather the broken pieces and throw them in the trash when he heard footsteps heading to the kitchen.

Logan entered the kitchen with a worried look. "Virgil is everything alright?"

Virgil was feeling a little sweaty already, when did it get so hot in the kitchen? "Yeah, sorry, I dropped a plate. It's nothing."

Logan brows furrowed: "Good, I hope you don't beat yourself up over it because a plate's exactly that, nothing. We could conjure tons of them if we wanted too."

"Thanks, but no, it's fine, it's not like we never talked about that topic before-" he cleared his throat a little bit more forceful than usual "-if you need me for anything else, I'll be in my room."

\---

As soon as Virgil managed to slam his door shut behind him, he went into a coughing fit. No, no, no, he couldn't be sick. Surely the time he spent around Roman wasn't enough to get him infected with whatever slithered through the prince's system. He simply couldn't be sick, surely he was just imagining it. Being anxiety and all, it wouldn't be his first time overreacting. Yes, he just needed to sleep it off and he would feel brand new in the evening. A little nap was all he needed to be back to his old, at least physically healthy self.

When he woke up a few hours later, the sun was already beginning to set but the light still burned in his eyes, making his head throb. Then he darted off into the bathroom to hug the toilet and review what he had for breakfast. 

When he finally stopped an hour later, he glanced at the clock. Virgil grimaced, half gladly for missing dinner, half worried because he needed to make up an excuse for it later. He really hoped that he would be able to sneak down to get himself some tea and a few dry crackers to stash up in his room until he was better.

With that resolve he threw up his hood to conceal his face and carefully cracked his bedroom door open, listening into the empty corridor for a second before he slipped out and tip-toed his way downstairs. The living room was barely lit but still bright enough that Virgil could see the bundle of blankets softly move on the couch. Virgil suddenly felt like someone replaced the blood in his veins with ice when he noticed that it was a sleeping Roman. He rushed over to the couch, what was he still doing here? He taught Patton wanted to deal with him? 

Virgil glanced around once more, making sure they were still alone before he quietly tried to shook Roman awake. Maybe if they were quick enough, he could move Roman back to wherever Patton decided to put him before the others noticed that any of them snuck out. If only Roman would cooperate a little…

"Roman," Virgil whispered while shaking the royal's arm, "Roman, please wake up goddammit." 

He sighed in relief when the prince finally stirred and quickly dragged him into a sitting position while trying to untangle him from the dozen blankets.

"Virgil, what are you doing?" Roman asked confused, voice slurred from sleep.

"I'll help you go back, we just need to be quick, okay? Trust me, Ro, alright?"

"What? Go back to where? Virgil, you make no sense, what-" Roman sounded much more awake and confused, unfortunately making his voice rise in volume despite being hoarse.

"It's okay, just trust me, okay?" Virgil whispered back, gripping Roman by his shoulders and tried to pull him standing. "But you need to be quiet Roman, please, I don't want us both in trouble. Just tell me where Patton brought you earlier and I'll get you there and-"

"But why should I leave, Virge?!" Roman whined, "I just got comfy…"

"I know, I'm sorry but you simply have to leave or-"

"And why should he leave?" The question came from the top of the stairs and Virgil whirled around to face the pair that came down into the commons, holding books, pillows, and some medicine containers. The sudden movement made the room blur at the edges, the light seemingly dimming more.

Virgil opened his mouth to come up with some excuse or anything really but froze when Patton brushed past him. Virgil was expecting anger, Roman was here while being sick after all, maybe still infectious, but Patton only put him back into his nest of blankets, Roman already dozing off again.

Then Patton looked at him, tone still so gentle when he asked: "Virgil, why do you think Roman should leave?"

Virgil fought with his throat to keep his voice even, to get the whole answer out without another coughing fit. "He is sick a-and he might get someone else infected."

Logan stepped beside him: "That can't be helped unless we would lock him in the basement or something."

Patton's half smile at one of Logan's rare jokes, without doubt a try to dissolve the tension in the room, fell as soon as he noticed the anxious side's stiff posture. 

"Virgil, kiddo, you know Logan made a joke right?"

Virgil flinched a little. Shit, he missed his cue to laugh. "I-I'm sorry. I-" He began to curl in on himself. Surely it wasn't normal that he could have counted his heartbeat in his ears. Or that he suddenly thought he knew how the color brown tasted. His throbbing head really was killing him and yet he forced himself to focus on the voices.

"Virgil, I assure you that you have no reason to apologize," Logan interrupted him, "but I for my part am concerned that you would think that I would do so much as consider such a cruel action, let alone carry it out. Is there a particular reason for that thought process?"

Virgil fixed his eyes on the carpet, it wasn't like he could ignore Logan's question no matter how much he wanted that. 

"Back with D- the others they- when I got sick, they did- did that- said that I was just going to spread it", somewhere through his stuttering Virgil had begun to cry, "a-and when you said you would take care of Ro-Roman I thought-"

"You thought, I was going to do the same," Patton ended. "Virgil, I promise you that none of us would ever do that. Please try to believe me."

Virgil nodded, deep down he knew Patton would never hurt anyone but fear was a poor counselor after all and combined with a feverish consciousness... He hadn't been thinking clearly today. And it just felt so right to melt into the soft hug Patton was offering him.

Patton shot Logan a worried look, as he felt Virgil practically burning, even through the thick fabric of his hoodie. 

"Kiddo, could it be that you're not exactly the healthiest right now either?"

A small moment passed before a sniffled "maybe" confirmed Patton's suspicion. "Then let's get you some rest too, ok?"

Patton set down Virgil on the couch, next to Roman, and wrapped a blanket around him. Logan sat down on Virgil's other side, drawing his head into his lap and began combing his fingers through his hair, sweeping it away from his sweat-coated forehead, feeling the side in his lap drifting to sleep on a wave of relaxation.

Patton smiled down on the others. He knew that they would need to talk about this, but for now, he was going to take care of his family.


End file.
